At a gate topped by barbed wire just north of White Sands Missile Range, a miles-long line of vehicles formed before dawn on Saturday. Once or twice a year, the U.S. Army rolls this gate open so that ordinary citizens can set foot upon the precise patch of New Mexico desert where the first atomic bomb exploded. Civilian access to the site was first insisted upon in 1952 by members of a local church. They wanted to pray for peace in the place where humanity first tested the ultimate weapon…
